Rats

From the BBC website see the photo.
So we aren’t quite as close as I always thought.
We once had one in our first floor kitchen.
Our amah came in shrieking that there was a mouse as big as a cat in the kitchen!
Mum checked that she was quite correct so we closed the door and sat in a row staring at it ( the door) until dad came home.

My bedroom is downstairs and I have French doors opening out onto my garden and I always leave my window open Winter and summer. 🤓

During lockdown year, we had the privilege of a vixen raising her litter under our shed and in our garden. Heard a terrible kurfuffle one night coming from next door, and a day or so later, I found a decapitated rat in the garden. I'm assuming the kerfuffle was our vixen dealing with it. I hummed and haa'ed about how to dispose of it and tbh left it out there untouched that day but thankfully when I went out to clear it up, the corpse had vanished, presumably taken away for dinner by our fox mum. Very reassuring knowing we had resident pest control!

I live on the edge of open fields, and yes there are rats and other "vermin" around. At this time of year, we have a grille which fits over the open window as our biggest problem is the flies and hornets

Mice come into houses. Rats don’t they may come as far as the cavity in a wall/air vent on an external wall/inbuilt outhouse at a push for a visit but they don’t live where people live because we are noisy and keep moving things and disturbing them. They like to be undisturbed and so they make their homes in outbuildings with stuff in that doesn’t get cleared out, or rubble piles/compost heaps, or under sheds/vegetation. They don’t make their homes where there are people living and moving things about. They won’t even go anywhere near an unfamiliar object if placed in the garden. Definitely won’t come in and attack you. They will be in the garden/hay barn/shed/stable/ duck pond edges/under the decking/under the dog kennel/ in the garage/even in the fruit trees eating your fruit, But not in the house with people. Please don’t worry just check with your park maintenance that rat boxes are re-baited regularly and if they are (They will be) then I guarantee that there will be no rats around you, not even in the garden/shed etc. They need water frequently so prefer to live near water or a source of it (bird stations with bird baths, duck pens with water and feed are their favourite restaurant so they live nearby if they can (in the garden). No water they can’t survive. They stay outside in the summer but try to find a nest site in a shed/garage/barn/stable or dig a burrow in autumn ready for overwintering. The danger is from the diseases they carry not from attack. They are more afraid of you than you are than them. Baitboxes are your friend.

I've never let it worry me, i.live near a field that is renowned for.field.rtas never been.concerned.about them coming in through
I sleep.with my.big.wimdow open some nights. my garden.backs onto the field and on some desperately.hot.nihjts i.even.rest my feet on the window sill for air.

I very, very much doubt it would go to the trouble of scrambling up a wall to get in your window unless you have hoards of tasty treats stashed in there; even then, they would find a better way
Luckily, our cat is old now and was always more for voles and rabbits
We have a bank behind us, and our shed is always full of rats. They love the bait blocks; they take them and use them to make nice, cozy nests! It's a case of keeping up with new bait until they get used to it again. It's a part of life. Our old Jack used to have a field day in there with them. they do not come down the garden, so that is fine with us. Until they do, they are welcome to the shed.

I live in a very rural place so lots of wildlife. I never close my kitchen or bathroom window, we have had no problems at all

We have had a massive problem with rats this year (in our garden). They burrowed under the garden shed which is not particularly old and on a concrete base. They burrowed into our outhouse back in early February. They ate through the plastic compost heap bin door. They broke into the garage and took up residence at the back of it. All now evicted. However, they were jumping off of the edge of these ancient spiky plants as well at the back of our garden. Finally, one evening a few weeks back, we found one had gnawed a hole in the door frame of our unused front door and one ran in and ran back out again. It was a massive problem possibly caused by the flooding on the water meadows below our house forcing them up the hill - we live on the edge of a large village. Also, our neighbours have a very wild garden and neglected house and also own a bit of land right at the end of our garden which is also similarly neglected. We have two useless dogs and a useless cat, none of whom have deterred the rats. My cat also caught toxoplasmosis last year, most likely from one of them and nearly died. After a 13k medical bill to save her, we are not keen for her to go near the rats anyway. But it does mean we are reluctant to put the bait boxes down. I will put them at the back of the garage this autumn though as I do not want a repeat scenario this winter. We live in a very old cottage (over 250 years old) and that probably has something to do with it. I put a little paper bag from Pandora in my utility room a few days ago. I just took it earlier this evening and looked inside to find a huge false widow spider and what looked like a million spiderlings with her in there (relocated to the very back of the garden!) - the mother spider will have come in from the adjacent downstairs bathroom for which my husband always leaves the window open - the room is slightly below ground. This is more my concern with open windows these days!!

We had a problem some time ago, and read up on what deters rats, one of the answers was to put raw garlic around the garden, we've not seen any since then so hopefully it works!!

Thank you for your words of encouragement, last night I did leave the window open ever so slightly as I really do sleep better with fresh air coming in. xx

Do not want to scare anyone but I live in a HA street and there is abandonned property where rats live and this evening I saw a rat just outside the upstairs window trying to eat the eave ...not sure is it already living in our attic, I hope not

I am also curious about your experiences...some of you have rats in the shed. Are they not coming and nesting in your attics, walls and so on

I can’t sleep if I am on the ground floor anywhere as I have to open my window and don't feel safe. Never thought of a rat getting in though.

We have a wide range of birds coming into our garden - some of them are ravens [goodness knows where they come from] and we did have some rats in the shed but the ravens thankfully appeared to scare them off - or carried them off! They've not been seen since though they might be hiding back in the shed of course. Perhaps I'm a bit mad but I don't worry about rats as long as they don't come near the house - which they don't - so I prefer to let things go their own way. They were probably in the area way before the house was built!

We have cats so no worries about rats, possums or mice getting in. You can’t leave unprotected windows open here because of insects, have to have flyscreens. One of the downsides of living in Australia.

The bottom of my garden and my shed are in front of a bank and I’m pretty sure there are rats living under my Shed, (on blocks but open) don’t want to tempt Providence but have never found rats in my shed or my summer house so hopefully they are quite content to live under the Shed.occasionally my cat will bring one onto the patio thank goodness never brought one indoors..
As long as they stay under the shed, I will not put poison down for them, I think they die a horrible death with these poisons and no creature deserves that..

The problem is now this lady has mentioned a rat coming in, no matter what anyone else says, you still have this little niggle that it might happen.
You could fit an insect screen in side your window for peace of mind. Not only will it keep Roland and his mates away but also the creepy crawly brigade. Win, win!

I am not physically scared of the rats but the info that they might pee or carry disease is not nice. I could not sleep well last night but did not hear any noise. Today that thing is not on the eave and no noises from the attic. May be they just do things sporadically and without any specific behaviours???? So really is down to chance not the fact they might be rats around down the road??

we have neighbours cats who often rest right around and kill many birds. May be they actually keep everything under control. I will prayer also

In the early nineties, as part of my job with a bank, I visited clients at their business premises. I was at a farm at lunch time interviewing clients when the father got out his gun, opened the kitchen window and took a pot shot at a rat climbing up the drainpipe! My first encounter with a real rat! My only other experience uf them was in my garden in the pandemic. Needless to say rat poison put down and no rats since. Thankfully!!